In Framingham.  On a book tour. Check in. Make sure Random House has arranged direct billing (the tipoff is if you are asked for a credit card. If you are, say it is direct billed, and when they check, they shouldn’t ask you for yours. If you give them your card, you will be charged for the hotel, for sure.) Show photo ID. Check on room service, and WI-FI. Most upper-end hotels charge $10 a day for Internet Access. Curiously, the bargain motels usually offer it for free. Missed the bigger rest stop so ended up having no choice but McDonald’s. Yuk.

We have two interviews in the next hour, one a half hour away. Publicists never check distances, and they think Cambridge, Mass., is right next door to Worcester, Mas. If there is a media escort, that is no problem. There isn’t today, so we have to gauge the distances to Needham. Then back for dinner and the Barnes and Noble, just down the road, at 7 p.m.

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Can’t say enough about the utility of the Ipad, derided by snoots as a toy. I don’t use it much as an e-book reader, I use it as an information and communications tool on the road. Today I used the GPS to find the hotel, checked e-mail, posted on FB, made reservations for Maria and me at an inn for New Years, talked to my editor, uploaded photos for Random House, checked in on interviews, paid two bills online, ordered an Xmas gift from Amazon, checked on my own book. When I get home, there aren’t a zillion e-mails waiting for me, and I got a lot done. Off to Needham and a TV interview. Touring is a strange life.